Thanks guys. It's coming on nicely. I've moved all the photos in the thread to Flickr, and I've got some more to take and I've made some more progress.Masts 3/4 done, oars 1/3 done, Rollocks done, and it's had a bit more paint. Another update soon.......

Sorry, it's been a while since I uploaded any photos. There has been progress, but it's been kinda slow going. Adding the details seems to take a long time and you don't see much progress. Anyway, here we go.

Bow details. The 'leather' knee pad (or whatever it is !) was made from a foil cap rescued from a wine bottle. You have to buy really good wine to get a proper lead foil cap these days. Most of them have plastic, or plastic backed foil, which doesn't 'work so well. (and it's a great excuse to buy a bottle of good wine !)

The cut-out in thwart 2 for the mast. I made the cut-out central, but there is something not quite symmetrical about my model. When I tried the mast, it wasn't upright. I ended up fiddling it by offsetting the mast step (I think it's called that) and 'moving the cut-out by trimming one side and adding a shaving of wood the other.

The copper strips were a right pain to do. Took all flaming evening to get them right.

Wow, mark, they're going to be so thrilled with that, it looks smashing - really looks the part. I think you've done remarkedly well with this kit; as now I'm into it myself I can appreciate just how much backwards and forwards thinking one has to do in order to make sense of what it is you're trying to achieve.

Thanks for all the compliments chaps. I'm sure they will be pleased with it. I have to say, it's a very nice model, and it makes a nice change from the more usual fully rigged sailing ships. I could almost be tempted to get another one to build for myself.

Coils of rope around the eyes where the running rigging will be tied off. The buckets of rope are resin parts, painted with Games Workshop paints. There is a layer of card, and just a single layer of rope.

The rope buckets. These should actually be connected together, but I wanted to leave the accessories loose so the owner can reposition them, or leave them out, as they like. The harpoons aren't rigged either.

Brilliant Mark - it really does look an absolute treat. The boat itself was a cracker enough to inspire me to have a go as you know - but with all the tools and accessories, rigged and mounted ... well, I'm sure the happy couple will be over the moon - and so they should be.Was the idea of a boat as a wedding gift an inspired notion, or does it have some spiritual or other significance?

Thanks for the kind words. Our niece had stayed with us whist we were in the UK and had seen my work. She just asked for a model. I don't think that there is any special significance. I gather they are pleased with it, and it arrived unscathed.

I have been making this Amati model for some time but I have got stuck on the hull planking - can you help?The numbering system on the diagram MUST be wrong? It inidcates that the garboard strake (the plank nearest the keel)is the longest of all of them and this cannot be accurate. In fact it would be the shortest of the plank runs? So I assumed that they just got the numbering the wrong way around. This has worked OK for the first 7 strakes on either side but the final plank doesn't quite reach from sternpost to stempost.I am interested to know how you got around these problems.Thanks.Tony farrell

Welcome to the forum. This was probably the most difficult hull I've planked! It's a real challenge, but you already know that!!

I don't remember the planks being numbered wrongly, but this photo shows fairly clearly the planks and you can still see the pencil numbers on them. The longest plank must be the top one. I recall the garboard plank has tapered ends rather than

The top plank did fit, and the keel was made according to the plan, but I may have placed everything slightly lower down the hull. However, it wouldn't have been for than a few millimetres. I think the freeboard at the middle of the boat is a bit lower than the plans, so that the top plank takes the natural line, if you see what I mean. It's going back about 3 years now, and I didn't keep the plans, so I haven't got anything to check back against. I think I got the top plank in the right position, then added the intermediate planks, all with masking tape, so I could adjust things until it looked right. Even then, it took two goes, and per the entry in my diary. Also, don't forget that the top plank bottom edge is raised 1mm from the frame by the plank beneath it. This also makes a difference to how it lays.

Here's a link to the entire album on Flickr. There may be some photos on there that aren't in the diary which may give you a clue.

Hi Mark,Thank you for your prompt reply and for going to the trouble of answering my query.But I am still a bit stuck. I have actually made quite a few ship models - some of them much more complicated than this one. But . . . this one is proving difficult because of the rather curious template system, the poor English translation of the Italian instructions and some vagueness in the plans.On the instructions it shows that the garboard strake, nearest the keel, is number 23. But on the full size strake diagrams it is clear that plank 30 is the shortest and shaped to fit nearest the keel - so, the numbering system on the instructions must be wrong?I have taken photos of the plans and of my model to illustrate what I am saying but I am new to this website and can't get them to load into my text/Sorry to seem rather helpless.You obviousle overcame the planking problems and produced an excellent finished model! I have been shelving this for several years (!!!!!!) but want to sort it now.

Like you, I've built a few model ships, and some of them look much more impressive that this one. But this is certainly the most difficult planking job I've done.

Can you upload the photos to Flickr? Then you can click on the share photo icon, select BBcode and a size of medium (600x800) seems about right.Then just copy the code the web site presents you, and paste it into your post. I can give you more precise instructions if this brief guide isn't clear. Just ask.That's the simplest way, and Flickr is free for up to 1000 photos I think.

There was another chap, Andi, building this kit on the forum. Unfortunately all his photos seem to have disappeared from the build diary. However, he does have some on Facebook. Not sure if they're visible publicly, but worth a click to try.